Zamora was carried off on a stretcher in the first half after his ankle buckled under a fair but robust challenge from Henry.

It was a cruel blow for a player who had signed a new contract the previous day and won his first England cap last month, and Henry told Wolves' website: "I'm sorry that the damage was done to him because it's the last thing I would have wanted."

He added: "I know Bobby - we've got the same agent and we were away with the England Under-21s together. I'd never go out to hurt anyone, let alone him.

"I felt it was a good tackle. I just tried to win the ball, but I could see he was in agony straight away and called to their physio."

Zamora's team-mate Clint Dempsey reacted angrily towards Henry at the time and the home fans berated Wolves with a chant of "you're a disgrace to the Premiership" in the second half. But Cottagers manager Mark Hughes later admitted the challenge was a fair one and defended Wolves against claims they had been unreasonably physical.

Henry continued: "There was certainly nothing from me, that I tried to 'do' him, which a few of their players were suggesting. I don't want to hear it from another professional, that I've gone out to try to 'do' someone.

"I didn't do anything deliberate and I would never try to do anything deliberate to hurt anyone. We don't want this reputation of being bullies and that's not the way we go out to play. It's within the rules of the game to tackle and people need to stop moaning about it.

"We have to close these teams down. At no stage does the manager say 'go and kick lumps out of anybody' and I don't think we saw that.

"As for the crowd, it's part and parcel of football. We don't really care and we'll get on with it."